Taiwan wins six gold medals at innovation contest in Paris

Photo courtesy of Xu Jie-zhong (徐捷中)

Paris, May 7 (CNA) Taiwan won six gold medals at the Concours Lépine International Paris, an international innovation competition held in Paris, France on Monday.

Among the many innovations showcased at the 117th annual competition, Taiwan submitted 86, including gold medal winners like the be*U Speeh app, which allows speakers of different languages to communicate using images, and a smart air filter mask.

Xu Jie-zhong (徐捷中), one of the inventors of the be*U Speech app, which also won a special award, explained that the inspiration behind the invention was seeing the challenges his grandmother and her caregiver had in communicating with each other.

Instead of translating words from one of seven languages, which includes Chinese, English, Japanese, French and Russian, the app takes the word a user types and translates it into an image to better convey the message, Xu noted.

Organizers have decided to divide announcement of the awards into two sections, with winners of the silver and bronze medals being named later on Tuesday.